Kti
Background The Ktarh language (Kti: "ktehanarā", /ktɛxanaˈra:/) is one of the major languages on Oktarhazǣm. It is the most widely spoken Dnaric language, with several billion speakers. It is made up of several dialect clusters and one standard variety; the dialects are decreasing in usage due to official government policy. The Ktarh language (most often plainly called "Kti", sometimes called "ktehanarā") can be abbreviated to "kt." in situations requiring the usage of its formal name (as shown in the tooltip). Dialectically, Kti is divided into the following clusters and dialects: :- Dialects of Tanu ::'- Upper' Tanarh ::'- Lower' Tanarh ::'- Peninsular' Tanarh :::'- Acrolectic' peninsular (lingua franca) :::'- Basilectic' peninsular :- Peripheric Ktarh ::'- Insular' dialects ::'- Eastern' dialects :::'- Coastal' eastern :::'- Inland' eastern ::'- Southern' dialects The acrolectic peninsular Tanarh dialect is usually taken as the closest form to standard Kti. Phonology Vowels There are six cardinal vowels (A E U I O Æ) each representing one cardinal phonemic value of /a ɛ u i ɔ ɞ/ and each cardinal vowel has two lengths that have minimal pairs and allophonic variants depending on position. The vowels /a: ɛ: u: i: ɔ: ɞ:/ remain more constant to their value than their short variants. They are organised as such in the vowel space: Allophony Each of the twelve vowels have allphones that are dependant on their position. Diphthongs Dipthongs are combinations of two vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as a single long vowel in length. When both a diphthong + peripherial vowel and a triphthong are possible, the former gets chosen over the latter. The first component of the diphthong is always semivocalic. Tripthongs Tripthongs are combinations of three vowels. They don't change according to position. They're counted as an overlong vowel or as a dipthong + short vowel in length. Every triphthong has a central element. Consonants Kti has 12 cardinal consonants ( Sh, S, Z, Zh, K, T, D, H, M, N, R, ' ). They are distributed unevenly along five points of articulation, labial, alveolar,' postalveolar', velar and glottal. *These are allophonic variations of an underlying phoneme. Allophony The allophonic variations of consonants are far smaller than in vowels. The only consonants that have a variable pronounciation are /k/ and /x/. Allophony of /k/ The realisation of /k/ as [k ~ kj] is an enviromental feature. [k'] and ['kj] are in complementary distribution before vowels. /k/ is realised as [k'] before /a/, /u/, /ɔ/ and /ɞ/ and consonants, while ['kj] is seen only sometimes before /i/ and /ɛ/. In initial positions, [k'] is always pronounced as such, and an analysis of ['kj] as an allophone can be considered correct as [k'] seems to be the underlying element and therefore the priviledged value. Allophony of /x/ The realisation of /x/ is far more simple, as ['h] is a simple allophonic equivalent of [x'] as it occurs only in initial positions. Unlike ['k] and [kj] which share one grapheme, [x'] and ['h] are differentiated in the orthography. Sometimes, when [x'] is put instead of ['h], it can be assumed that the previous word is linked with the current one via compounding, phrasing or some sort of derivation, therefore giving rise to certain minimal pairs that don't chage the meaning of one word but of a phrase; this phenomenon occurs only in very fast speech. The view that [h'] is an allophone of /'x/ is still held, though. Dialectical Variation The primary variations in Ktarh dialects stem from two things: #The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "l > r > ʂ; ʂ > ʃ" #The different outcomes of the sound change which came around in the acrolect as "{ m d } > \varnothing / 'ɛ_aC#" The first sound change might have happened differently, with results such as a contrast of /r ʂ ʃ/, /l r ʂ/, /l r ʃ/ and even a total levelling of /ʃ~ʂ/ - the acrolect preserves a contrast of /r ʃ/, with /r/ stemming from earlier /l/ and /ʃ/ stemming from both an earlier /r/ and /ʂ/. The second sound change, much more limited in scope but far more influental in verbs than the first, was either applied or not. It has resulted in pairs of words such as "akemash" and "akēsh" (stemming from "akeash", often heard instead of the second word's prescribed pronunciation) Phonotacics Phonotactics of Kti is divided into syllable rules and combinatorics. Syllables Ktarh syllables have the following general structure: Vowels in Kti always border a consonant. Vowels of equal weight can share control over a single consonant between them, thus having it belong to two syllables at once. Syllables sometimes tend to "hoard" consonants taken from previous syllables, thus sometimes reaching three initials. These consonants, while theoretically part of the first syllable, phonetically become part of the second. It should be noted that a post-vocalic glottal stop resets syllable rules, thus always starting a new syllable after it. Stress Prosodic stress is very syllable-dependant and there are relatively complex rules that are governed by syllable position and structure. Stress is pretty regular in that it is generally found in the penultimate syllable unless something else happened. If the word is monosyllabilic, the stress is on the sole syllable. A syllable is counted as "light" if it has a short vowel, and "heavy" if it has a long vowel, diphthong or triphthong. Stress in Kti follows these rules: #Primary stress is always on one of the last three syllables. #If all three ultimate syllables are either fully heavy or fully light, stress falls on the penultimate. #If one of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and the rest light, stress falls on the heavy syllable. #If two of the three ultimate syllables is heavy and one is light, stress falls on the first of the heavy syllables. #Secondary stress always falls on the syllable that has a gap of one syllable between itself and the stressed syllable. ##By this, if the primarily stressed syllable is antepenultimate, the secondarily stressed syllable is always the ultimate. ##Secondary stress cannot fall on on the initial syllable except if it is heavy. #Tertiary stressings occur in relation to secondary stress in the same conditions as secondary stress does to primary. ##Tertiary stress has a gap between itself and secondary stress of one syllable - if the secondarily stressed syllable is ultimate, tertiary stress falls on the syllable two behind primary stress. ##Tertiary stress, unlike secondary, can fall on the initial syllable regardless of its weight. Combinatorics Ktarh phonotactical combinatorics deals with combinations of vowels and consonant clusters. It deals with the conditions that must be met for the combination to be legal. The rules are listed as such: #/z/ and /ʃ/ cannot be next to any fricative #/t/ cannot be preceeded by a nasal #/t/ cannot be followed by any plosive except /ʔ/ #/d/ cannot be followed by any alveolars except /n/ and /ʃ/ #/a/ cannot be next to /ɞ/ #Geminates don't occur in roots. Using these rules and the phonology, we can formulate the following combinations: /md/ /mk/ /mʔ/ /ms/ /mz/ /mʃ/ /mʒ/ /mx/ /mr/ /mn/ /nd/ /nk/ /nʔ/ /ns/ /nz/ /nʃ/ /nʒ/ /nx/ /nm/ /nr/ /st/ /sd/ /sk/ /sʔ/ /sʒ/ /sx/* /sm/ /sn/ /sr/ /zt/ /zd/ /zk/ /zʔ/ /zm/ /zn/ /zr/ /xt/ /xd/ /xk/ /xʔ/ /xs/ /xʒ/ /xm/ /xn/ /xr/ /rt/ /rd/ /rk/ /rʔ/ /rs/ /rʃ/ /rx/ /rm/ /rn/ /tʔ/ /ts/ /tz/ /tʃ/ /tʒ/ /tx/ /tm/ /tn/ /dʃ/ /dn/ /dm/ /dr/ /ae/ /au/ /aɔ/ /aɛ/ /ua/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɛi/ /iɛ/ /iu/ /iɔ/ /ɔa/ /ɔɛ/ /uɛ/ /uɔ/ /uɞ/ /ɞa/ /ɞɛ/ /ɞi/ /ɞɔ/ /ɞu/ Vowel combinations apply to long vowels as well. */sx/ is only theoretical and doesn't occur in practice. In actuality, the cluster /sx/ metathesises into /xs/ invariably. ﻿﻿Grammar Syntax Kti is a Verb-Object-Subject language, which means that the first major/important word is (usually) the verb, followed by an optional object, then an optional subject. In Kti, adjectives come before nouns and pronouns, adverbs before verbs and p/articles mostly occur prior to the word they relate to, except when stated otherwise. Kti differs from the norm of verb-object languages by having a few features most often rather found in object-verb languages: *Genitives in Kti usually precede that to which they relate, while possessives usually follow. *Adjectives in Kti are either prefixed to the noun or used as verbs if relating to something other than a noun. *Numerals and determiners usually preceede that to which they relate. *Question particles tend to follow the verb phrase (instead of being initial, as per norm). Since Kti is an extensively case-marked language, it has such a freedom with the ordering of constitutents that it can undergo hyperbaton without consequence. Pronouns Pronouns in Kti are, in essence, fossilised nouns, repurposed postpositions and determiners, and semanitcally bleached "waste" words such as conjuncts and expletives - the second person pronouns are as a whole derived from a set of vocative particles. They decline as inanimate nouns of the corresponding gender. Most pronouns have one suppletive stem for a specific case, either remnants of the old declensions, analogical levellings or more archaic forms. Hover over each of the suppletive stems to see which is its specific case (you might even notice a pattern and some correspondences) Nouns Nouns are used to describe objects, beings, events and other things. Declension In Kti, nouns have multiple grammatical categories. They are as follows: #'Animacy' #'Genders' #'Number' #'Cases' Animacy Kti has a complex animacy system, with several levels of animacy (how sentient something is). Animacy is usually divided into the following categories: Dead: members of this group have been alive at an earlier point in time, but is no longer among the living. Inanimate: members of this group have never been alive, and due to that fact they cannot die. Critters: members of this group are unintelligent or semi-intelligent and alive, likely not aware of themselves. Sentient: members of this grop are sentient, perhaps even sapient, and are capable of abstract thought, speech, logical thinking and reasoning. All Ktarh nouns have an inherent lexical animacy - to change their animacy one would either decline them with the case suffix that encodes the desired animacy (in non-nominative situations), or use the following suffixes to change the animacy of the nominative: ×Sentient is considered the default animacy, inanimate and critter are not allowed. 'Gender' There are three genders in Kti, masculine, feminine and mechanoid. Both the masculine and mechanoid genders are lexical - they are inherent properties of nouns. Feminine nouns can usually be identified according to their endings, but it is not uncommon that a noun both has one of the endings and isn't feminine. Gender in Kti is related to declensions and can sometimes be lexical. In some cases, gender functions less as a definite identification of actual gender and more of a marker of more vague nominal classes. Number Nouns in Kti distinguish three numbers, grouped into two sets. The first set is the singular set, containing only the singular number. The singular, glossed , expresses the concept of one instance of something, or a complex in a state of unity (a rug of leaves, a field of flowers). The second set is the set of multiples, containing the dual and plural. *The dual, glossed , expresses the concept of two instances of something, or a complex in a state of duality (eyes, stars in a binary system). *The plural, glossed , expresses the concept of many instances, a myriad. There are no mass or uncountable nouns in Kti - all Ktarh nouns can be inflected for number although some may not show it in certain circumstances. Types There are two noun types in Kti: #'Regular-type' nouns #'Clipping-type' nouns The difference in these two types is in how they behave under declension. Where regular-types just attach a suffix, clipping-type undergo an ablaut in the last vowel in the manner ~ ~ . There are precisely determined enviroments in which this happens, but the nouns are random in their type placement. Full vowels are lenghtened ones, half vowels are short and null represents the lack of the vowel. These grades stem from an earlier seperate declension that had merged with the standard one. The "SPECIAL" stands for no change to the vowel, and analogical leveling has merged the grades of the Genitive, Identical, Ornative, Adventive, Possessive and Partitive. Cases The case of a noun or pronoun is a change in form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. Cases usually indicate relations between constitutents inside Ktarh sentences. Kti has an above-average amount of cases (28 cases) and each case has several markers as it is conflated with number, declension number, animacy and gender. Kti, being a nominative-accusative language, has the nominative as the most often unmarked case. = Declining through Cases = As mentioned, the 28 Kti cases each have multiple declensions depending on their ending, containment of voiced/unvoiced fricatives, gender, animacy and others. The declensions are divided into three types: Masculine, Feminine and Mechanoid. Changes such as fricative de/voicing, vowel removal, vowel change come in some cases. The following tables depict masculine: |} Notes: '' ''*If in contact with a vowel, said vowel is removed and suffix attached as represented ²The vowel indicated in the brackets is added if the suffix doesn't have contact with a vowel ³The consonant in the brackets is added if the suffix is in contact with a vowel |} *Removes any vowels that might cause phonotactical troubles. |} Notes: *If in contact with a vowel, the vowel is removed and suffix attached as represented ²The vowel indicated in the brackets is added if the suffix doesn't have contact with a vowel ³The consonant in the brackets is added if the suffix is in contact with a vowel = Syntactical Roles = The section of Case Syntactical Roles covers the use of cases to represent roles in syntax. The following is the list of cases and their common syntactical roles: Nominative ''' :The nominative has two primary functions, namely denoting the agent of transitive and subject of intransitive verbs. Its secondary uses include an inalienable possessed state and less frequently the commitative. One can use both the instrumental and nominative to mark for commitativeness and both the nominative and accusative to mark subjects of intransitive perfective verbs. '''Genitive :The genitive is primarily used to mark the possessor and alienable possessedness. Its secondary uses are for place or time of origin and material composition. Dative :The dative case is primarily used to denote the recepient and beneficiary of polytransitive verbs. Its secondary uses are to denote the subject or agent of copula constructions where the attribute is directed towards the marked noun, and a direction to which something faces (the direction doesn't change). Accusative :The accusative case is primarily used to denote the direct object of verbs. Its secondary uses are to denote the subject of intransitive verbs (shared with nominative) and the change of direction of facing from some other entity to the one marked. Vocative :The vocative case has two primary functions, namely to call the marked entity, and to denote the subject of vocative verbs. Instrumental '''- Instrument '''Locative - Either general static location or topic of conversation Reflexive '- Both the subject and either direct or indirect object, varies '''Intrative '- Inside of modified word 'Inessive '- Varies, generally the location between modified words, or between instances of word if plural '''Subessive - Location below modified word Ablative '- Motion from or object recieved from the modified word '''Allative - '(On)to the modified word '''Delative - Moving from (the top of) modified word Elative - Out of modified word Illative '- Into the modified word '''Sublative '- To under the modified word '''Perlative - '''Through the modified word '''Prosecutive - Along the modified word Antessive '- Before the modified word '''Abessive '- Without the modified word, lacking the modified word '''Revertive - Against the modified word Identical '- Marks the modified words as being the same '''Ornative '- Marks the part of the word as having the second, the second is marked '''Adventive - Marks the word as foreign Possessive - Marks the word as a possessor of some other word Partitive - Marks the first part of the word as a vital segment of the second, the first is marked Anessive - Marks the word as a receiver of despise or being feared or avoided by some other word Demonyms Demonyms most commonly refer to parts of a whole, or belonging to that whole. Note that it is seperate from the cases, such as the Possessive and the Partitive case. In English, they describe nationality (English, German, Russian, Israeli), language (German, Hebrew,' Chinese') among others. In Kti, there is one specific way to determin demonyms, look for the extension -arh (Oktarh, Ktarh,' Britarh', Deutscharh), but creating demonyms from nouns is far more difficult. There is no specific rule for making demonyms, and that makes expressing nationalities seperate from cases difficult. If you want to make them, you should read through some demonyms and try to 'feel' the rules which demonyms follow. Note that demonyms always are made from source nouns and are written as so in the latin alphabet, and if the phonology of the word doesn't fit into the Ktarh one, the nearest/most simmilar consonant/vowel is selected to fit. Verbs Verbs are words that describe action, the one who completes the action, time of completion and such. The verbs are divided into auxiliary and main verbs. Acting auxiliary verbs are used to provide further morphological or semantic info about the main verbs. Main verbs represent the main action and make up the main body count of verbs. Verbs in Kti are conjugated according to: #'Object gender' #'Tense' #'Number' #'Person' #'Voice' #'Mood' #'Aspect' Object Agreement Ktarh verbs have a set of prefixes that agree the verbs to their direct objects only. This feature, called object agreement, gives Kti the status of a borderline polysynthetic language. The prefixes are: Verbs in Kti agree to their object's gender and animacy - certain combinations lack a form. These prefixes are optional only in cases when the object is present or previously introduced. If the object has been ommited, the prefixes are obligatory. Tense Tenses represent the temporal value of the referenced actions. Tenses branch into simple and more complex. Simple '''tenses are the basic tenses, self-sufficient and needn't have acting auxiliary verbs. '''Complex tenses use simple tenses of acting auxiliary and main verbs to be formed, and usually represent actions with certain parts in more than one time. Among others, the most common tenses are simple present, past, and future 'tenses in Kti, each expressing their corresponding period, and there are tenses with multiple possible times (future/present for example) which, for example, describe an action which has started in the past and has finished at the time of utterance. 'Basic Tenses Basic tenses are formed by simple affixation to the verb. They are: #Present simple #Past simple #Past aorist ='Present Simple' = A verb in the simple present describes an action which is happening or has begun now, at the time of utterance. Its perfective and imperfective aspectual forms provide marking for completion. The following table depicts the present simple of the verb 'to be' (kin): Because 'kin' is irregular, the table doesn't apply to other verbs, but only to 'kin'. The rules governing Present Simple are different. Let's take the verb 'to love' (kuhiton) for example: As 'kuhiton' is a regular verb, its suffixes are by extension also regular - it shares its suffixes with other irregular verbs. The suffixes for Present Simple are: ='Past Simple' = The simple past denotes the action happening prior to the present. The action in question may possibly have been completed but its goal wasn't accomplished thus being primarily atelic. The perfective and imperfective mark for the completion of the action. The verb 'kin' in the simple past: The suffixes for the simple past are: The verb "s'mnaraiton" (to speak a language) conjugated for all forms: ='Past Aorist' = The past aorist marks the action beginning in the past and having an unknown duration. It isn't marked for telicity - we don't know whether the goal was accomplished or not. The perfective and imperfective show whether the action can or will be completed or not. And here is an examle of the verb "irineton" (to be infected with ...) conjugated for the past aorist: And here are the endings: If the suffix begins in a long vowel and is attached to a word with a short final vowel, the final vowel is replaced by the suffix's long vowel; if the suffix begins in a short vowel and the word ends with an incompatible short vowel, the suffix's vowel transforms into the final vowel. If the word ends with a long final vowel and the suffix begins in a vowel, an excrescent /x/ is added between the two. Complex Tenses Complex tenses are formed via the basic verb forms . These tenses use acting auxiliary verbs in combination with the main verb. The complex tenses are the Pluperfect'', '''Future Simple, Present Periodic,' Past Periodic '''and the '''Future Periodic. For the complex tenses, there are almost no exceptions such as irregular verbs because most verbs follow the tense's rules. If something cannot be expressed using tenses, that can be done with the mood, aspect or voice. =Pluperfect = The Pluperfect, refers to a distant past action ( as in English 'had thought' ) and the action has already been completed. All acting auxilary verbs have the prefix 'de-' added to them in the Present Simple to make the verb's Pluperfect. For main verbs, you need to take the Aorist of the main verb and the Pluperfect of 'kin' (dekni, for example). The following table demonstrates 'shuneton' (to help) in the Pluperfect: These are the rules governing the Pluperfect: #'The Pluperfect form of 'kin' is taken and added prior to the Aorist of the main verb.' #'It represents a past action, further into the past than the Past Simple.' #'We know that the action ended some time in the past and lasted for a certain amount of time.' #'Auxiliary verbs, as in all the complex tenses, have a prefix (here being 'de-').' =Future Simple = Future Simple 'is the tense which represents an action that has yet to happen, and is going to last a certain amount of time before possibly finishing. Acting auxiliary verbs in Future Simple have the prefix 'ra-' added before their Present Simple form to make them future. This also applies to the verb 'to move' (nauton). The verb 'kin' in Future Simple: Turning a main verb into a future simple verb is easy: take the infinitive of the main verb and add 'kin' in the Future Simple before the main verb. Here are '''Future Simple '''rules: #'The Future Simple form of 'kin' is taken and is added prior to the infinitive of the main verb (the only exception is 'nauton'). #'It represents a future action that is yet to happen.' #'We predict or know that the action is going to begin and end in the future.' #'Auxiliary verbs, as in all the complex tenses, and the verb 'nauton' have a prefix (here being 'ra-').' =Past Periodic = Past Periodic is the tense that designates the verb as happening in the past, with intermediate brakes inbetween each occurance. An example would be "The wind blew", with the gusts of wind spread across the past. Technically, the Past Periodic and simmilar tenses are in fact tenses, since verbs are found in both perfective and imperfective aspects. Simply put, the pastt periodic is formed by adding an acting preposition, the permanently infinitive verb k'nazhiton (wanting/to want) prior to the verb in Past Aorist. The following example represents the Present Periodic form of the verb s'mnazheton(to continuously exterminate): Here are Past Periodic 'rules: #'The infinitive form of K'nazhiton is added prior to the verb. #'It represents a past action happening in temporally seperated occurances' #'We predict or know that the action happened in the past, with instances seperated by periods of time' =Present Periodic = Present Periodic'is the tense that designates the verb as happening now, with intermediate brakes inbetween each occurance. An example would be "It rains", with rain not flooding in a continuous sheet, but in periodic, occasional drops. Technically, the Present Periodic and simmilar tenses are in fact tenses, since verbs are found in both perfective and imperfective aspects. Simply put, the present periodic is formed by adding an acting preposition, the permanently infinitive verb k'nazhiton (wanting/to want) prior to the verb in Present Simple. The following example represents the Present Periodic form of the verb suzoton (to drip): Here are '''Present Periodic '''rules: #'The infinitive form of K'nazhiton is added prior to the verb. #'It represents a present action happening in temporally seperated occurances' #'We predict or know that the action is happening in the present, with instances seperated by periods of time' =Future Periodic = Future Periodic is the tense that designates the verb as in the future, with intermediate brakes inbetween each occurance. An example would be "They will be falling", with the mentioned objects falling seperately. Technically, the Future Periodic and simmilar tenses are in fact tenses, since verbs are found in both perfective and imperfective aspects. Simply put, the future periodic is formed by adding an acting preposition, the permanently infinitive verb k'nazhiton (wanting/to want) prior to the verb in Future Simple. The following example represents the Future Periodic form of the verb hoton (to stop/stand up): Here are Future Periodic 'rules: #'The infinitive form of K'nazhiton is added prior to the verb. #'It represents a future action happening in temporally seperated occurances' #'We predict or know that the action will happen in the future, with instances seperated by periods of time' Voice In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the verb and the participants identified by its arguments. 'Active and Passive Voices' The Active Voice is unmarked. The Passive Voice, on the other hand, uses markers which change according to person. ='Static Passive' = The Static Passive '''voice represents an action which is done by the agent, not the subject, and the subject usually being the patient. 'The hunter is killed by the bear' is an example of that type of passive. The marker corresponding to the static passive is ' '''u'ru ' and it changes according to the person, but not number. It is added after the verb and it's declined according to the following pattern: The marker is added after the verb and modifies the preceding verb. ='Dynamic Passive' = The Dynamic Passive'voice represents an action which is being completed by an unknown and irrelevant agent and the subject being usually the patient. 'The lawn is being mown' is an example of the Dynamic Passive. The marker corresponding to the dynamic passive is ' ara'ma ' and it also changes only according to person: The dynamic passive marker is added before the verb and modifies the following verb. 'Mediopassive Voice The Mediopassive 'voice represents an action that "just happened by itself" and refers almost exclusively to negative actions. An example in English would be "The glass broke". The Mediopassive voice marks the subject (and object) in the '''Reflexive '''case and is reckognised by a reflexive agent. 'Mood Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. Moods vary in their usage and purpose. In English, the Imperative (I command you to eat! ) is substantially different from the Indicative (John ate 'apples), although this doesn't apply to all languages. Moods are divided into the Realis and '''Irrealis '''moods. 'Realis moods Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods that indicate that something is actually the case or actually not the case (Cats are fast, Mary didn't cry). Kti realis moods are the Indicative, Speculative, Generic, and the Implicative 'moods. ='Indicative = The Indicative mood designates an action that is or isn't the case. ='Generic' = The Generic '''mood describes an attribute of something. This can be shown in the senteance 'Cats are fast', where the verb 'to be' is in the Generic mood. Here, it too doesn't have a special verb form to represent the Generic. The pattern for the Generic mood follows: where the Patient can be 'Cats' and Attribute 'Fast', where 'To be' can be in any tense, voice, person etc. The example 'Cats are fast' would be transformed to 'Are fast cats'. Note: You can only take the active voice for the Generic. ='''Speculative = The Speculative 'mood describes an action that might be true, but may not be, too. It is formed by adding the following suffixes: 'Irrealis moods Irrealis moods are the opposite of realis moods, as in they don't indicate that something is or isn't the case. This can be represented in the following senteance: 'Go eat! ' where the verbs 'to eat' and 'to go' are in the imperative. Kti Irrealis moods are the Imperative, Conditional I, Conditional II, the Obligative and the Impositive moods. ='Imperative' = The Imperative mood indicates a command or obligation. It can also indicate a request. You can form the Imperative by taking the present simple of the verb in the active voice, either the first or second person, then add the suffixes corresponding to the ending: If the verb root ends in the vowel '-i', add '-re', but if it ends in a consonant, add '-an'. ='Conditional I' = Conditional I, or as it is commonly written, the First Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The first conditional represents an action whose needs haven't been fulfilled ( Snails would be fast if they were to evolve jet engines and wings to lift off and fly away ). It is represented this way: O- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S) Here, 'O- ' is the prefix which denotes the first conditional, you probably know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense: CONDITION 1 => æt => CONDITION 2 => ...''ad infinitum'' The word 'æt' is a connector which links the conditions, it would roughly mean 'and', but has a much narrower meaning. ='Conditional II' = Conditional II, or as it is commonly written, the Second Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The second conditional represents an action whose needs have been fulfilled ( John ate because he was hungry ). It is repesented in the following manner: Ra- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S) Here, 'Ra- ' is the prefix which denotes the second, you should know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense, and these rules are shared with the first conditional. Technically, in both conditionals, you could remove the binding word, but it's not common. ='Obligative' = The Obligative 'mood expresses a notion simmilar to English "''ought to..." or "should...". There is no specific translation of obligative verbs. The '''Obligatives of verbs are formed by adding prefixes according to the following rules: ='Impositive' = The Impositive 'mood expresses something like English "''are supposed to..." or "be expected to...". The '''Impositives of verbs are formed by adding a marker after the verb. The following pattern demonstrates the forms of the marker: Aspect The aspect describes a temporal flow of a verb, or a lack of the same. Aspect can be explained in English with the senteances 'I eat' and 'I am eating'. The first one is nonprogressive while the other is progressive. In Kti, the aspects are Perfective 'and Nonperfective. These aspects aren't usually distinguished on a morphological level, but the aspect is embedded into their meaning. Perfective Aspect The perfective aspect describes an action which cannot go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I finished eating'. To make a nonperfective verb perfective, suffixes can be added at the very end of the word. This can be shown in the following example: 'Kuhinirai' would roughly correspond to 'I loved but it's finished/but I do not love anymore'. The verb can be in any tense, any voice, mood or person to be changed. The suffixes are: '-rai' if the verb ends in a vowel, '-am' if the verb ends in a consonant, '-deku' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a vowel, and '-iti' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a consonant. Imperfective Aspect The imperfective aspect describes an action which can go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I am eating and I can continue eating indefinately'. It isn't possible to make a perfective verb imperfective, as that would sound like: 'I am going to sit down and sitting down will go on forever', but making imperfective verbs out of simmilar perfective verbs is described inside the section of derivation. Negation Extra The extras of Kti's verb system fit in here if they don't fit in other categories 'Formality Kti doesn't have a formality system present in any of its morphological paradigms, but features some remnants of an older system remain in the syntax and lexicon; it's generally considered polite to put the verb in initial position (the normal unmarked form in the language, although it is to a large degree nonconfigurational) and to put the verb before its complements (to further emphasise the verb-initiality). Adjectives Adjectives always preceed the noun they modify, and due to syntactical and phonological rules, a whole noun phrase is considered one word. The adjective is unmarked for case, but only for gender, animacy and number. Adjectives can act as prefixes to nouns, and as such are not modified for case since the noun itself is. Comparation Ktarh adjectives have orders of magnitude to describe how well defined an attribute the adjective bears is. This can range from the basic, unmodified form (red) to the most advanced (reddest). The levels are as listed in the following table: Negative Comparation Unlike most Earthly natural languages, Kti also contains a system of negative comparation that defines the noun lacking the root attribute. These levels are listed according to their magnitude of negativity, according to how unlike the root adjective they are. The following table shows the negative levels: Declining Adjectives The following tables contain all the prefixes for adjective declension: Compounding and Derivation Kti, being a language artificially kept in place, almost never tolerates new word formation, therefore to transmit information not formally possible with pre-existing words, word synthesis and derivation are heavily relied upon. Derivation is used to form new words from old ones. The methods are divided into five categories, complexity ascending: Simple Compounding, Complex Compounding, Simple Derivation, Advanced Derivation and Inversion. 'Simple Compounding' The method of simple compounding deals with one nominal word or a verb fused with non-nominal or non-verbial word. Sometimes, due to the nature of syllable structure, additional processes operate. The process of simple compounding deals primarily with choice of the two words. To understand the choice, one must understand the types of words: The only words not meant for simple compounding are conjuctions. All other words are eligible for every form of derivation. The only limiting factor in simple compounding is the limited choice of words. If the second word's initial syllable contains two consonants that aren't in a cluster, and the first word ends in one consonant, the second word sheds the first consonant. If both words at the compounding border have only one consonant, the last consonant of the first word dissapears. Simple compounds can only form with words of differing classes - nominals cannot compound with other nominals by way of simple compounding, but by way of complex (same applies to verbals and particles). Simple compounds are always head-initial and are made up of only two elements. A specific subtype of simple compound is the noun incorporate. Noun Incorporation Kti employs a simple system of noun-incorporation, incorporating nouns which relate to objects to narrow the scope down and make the object use a more general term, or sometimes, in cases of simple objects, directly incorporating the object. Noun incorporation in Kti is strictly Verb-Noun and head-left, so that incorporatives such as "pick-pocket", "draw-knife", "chop-tree" are well-formed and behave as normal verbs. Noun incorporation in Kti decreases syntactical valency by one per incorporation, so that bitransitive verbs become monotransitive, monotransitive become intransitive. There are certain cases where certain simple intransitive sentences can go through incorporation to become impersonal, although such demotions occur only in cases of inanimate subjects. A good example of noun incorporation is this: "Nukartei sarum" > "Nukar tei" Both sentences translate to "I drink water", but the first has a seperate object, unlike the second one, which incorporated said object. Both of these sentences are valid. There are certain irregular incorporated nouns which correspond to outside nouns; also, there are certain cases where noun incorporation doesn't lower valency (tree-cut, when relating to a specific kind of tree). When noun incorporation results in semantic expansion, no valency decreases occur. A good example: "Nukartei kæmasarum" > "Nukar tei kæmum" The first sentence means "I drink sugar-water", while the other means "I water-drink sugar"; in this case, "water-drinking" sugar comes to mean "to drink sugar with water". Likewise, " to bread-eat butter" would mean "to eat butter with bread" in English. Incorporated nouns are always in the nominative, and are inserted after the verb root. If the incorporated nouns formerly forced the verb to take up a gender-animacy marking, the marking is dropped (only happens when there's nothing else to take up the marking). Incorporates ignore the dropping of consonants. 'Complex Compounding' Now here things get interesting. Complex compounding deals with making new words out of stock ones. This is the main wordbuilding process in the Ktarh language. As its name implies, it is far more complex than the other compounding system. Complex compounding certain rules which alter the verbs in relation to one another. Only words of same classes can compound by way of complex compounding. Script The Ktarh language is written in its native script, called "serenāhra". Example text Featured language banner Original text This language was once featured. Thanks to its level of quality, plausibility and usage capabilities, it has been voted as featured. Translated Text Dektai ara'nai sererem a nimani. Seremai ne i'rim, æt s'narena, æt marinamineton, dektai ara'nai mare serena ose. Breakdown in Kti de-ktai ara'nai sere-rem a nimani. Ra-sere-mai ne ivrim, æt s'narena, æt marinamineton, de-ktai ara'nai mare serene ose. Breakdown in English language be-PLUP-3PS DPASS.MARKER good-AOR BINDER distinguished-ADJ good-COND2-PAST BINDER quality and plausibility and potential, be-PLUP DPASS.MARKER select-ADJ good-ADJ-NONFEM 3RD.SNG.INANIM Translation to English This language was once distinguished. Due to its quality, plausibility and potential, it has been selected and featured. Literal Translation Language was good. Was good, distinguished, good, quality, plausibility, potential, was selected good it. ---- Category:Languages Category:Kti